Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In relation to the overpayments, in 2014 there were 1,374 cases of overpayments involving €2.35 million. Two years later, overpayments amounted to €4.6 million. Ms Murphy-Fagan stated overpayments will reduce in 2018 but they have the opposite trajectory. Given such a trajectory, why is Ms Murphy-Fagan confident that she will be able to turn the ship around? What has changed?

For example, I was contacted by somebody on a matter of no real issue in which there was a very small sum involved. Before the last election, there was a private secretary who, obviously, received an allowance for that role. Two years later, he was contacted to pay back a small amount of money. That is not the issue. The issue was it took two years. He did not even realise he was overpaid. In fact, he was only contacted recently.